Sistema owner Vladimir Yevtushenkov declines $75m of dividends

Vladimir Yevtushenkov, the owner of a 64.2% stake in Sistema and chairman of the company's board of directors refused to get 9-month dividends for 2017 that reached 4.2 billion rubles ($75m), Vedomosti
wrote.

According to Yevtushenkov, the money is going to be used for Sistema development. The majority shareholder mentioned certain future purchases, without specifying in which sectors. "We are an investment company, so we must invest," he explained.

Sistema seeks to pay dividends twice a year: after nine months, and then after the entire period. At an unscheduled meeting in November, the company's shareholders decided to allocate 6.560.000.000 rubles ($116m) for nine-month dividends. This was supposed to happen before January 22nd.

Last December, Sistema, Rosneft, Bashneft and the government of Bashkiria made a settlement, under which Sistema pledged to reimburse 100 billion rubles’ worth of losses ($1.8b) to Bashneft. The company’s subsidiary Sistema-Invest transferred the first 20.000.000.000 rubles at the end of the month, and the rest should be paid before April.